When I carried the broth back to his room, I noticed the cabinet.

For as long as I had known him, Walt had kept a display cabinet against the far wall of his bedroom, holding the mementos of twenty-two years of active service in the United States Marine Corps — his decorations, his insignia, a shadow box he was quietly, deeply proud of, though he would never have used that word.

The cabinet was bare.

Empty glass and dust lines where the frames had been.